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I've posted about pixar's storytelling before, and I find the story behind their latest film, Soul, to be fascinating
Soul in my view is an anti-anti-natalist fable, but even more interesting to me is what it says about the psychology of pixar writers (and us moderns)
Soul in my view is an anti-anti-natalist fable, but even more interesting to me is what it says about the psychology of pixar writers (and us moderns)
in Coco, pixar told the story of what comes after we die, appropriating the mexican myths of the Land of the Dead
HOWEVER, it's THOROUGHLY told through the lens of modernist bureaucracy. The land of the dead has police, office workers, paper shufflers, who maintain the records
HOWEVER, it's THOROUGHLY told through the lens of modernist bureaucracy. The land of the dead has police, office workers, paper shufflers, who maintain the records
this is TOTALLY different and completely gives away the mental world of the writers. they did deeply embedded ethnographic work and stole details of MarĂa de la Salud's life to tell this story, _and they tacked on all of the bureaucracy for laughs_
or so I thought!
or so I thought!
in Soul, there is not only a post-death bureaucracy, but we see an abstract, post-modernist (in visual representation) bureaucracy that also manages those who are born into life.
and tho the ins and outs of this bureaucracy are entertaining and hilarious, and there is a lot to
and tho the ins and outs of this bureaucracy are entertaining and hilarious, and there is a lot to
speculate on relative to some Stanford philosophy grad's David Benatar-shaped axe to grind in the 22 character, the most interesting bit to me is again this appearance of bureaucratic administration
this is the one thing i find fascinating about the pixar psychology in general - that they can’t imagine an alternative, or at least continue to imagine every part of life as a form of bureaucracy
it is all encompassing, and I am so sad that @davidgraeber is not alive to do an essay or treatise on it
furthermore, as I'm currently hoovering up the scientific lit ritual and social complexity in stateless societies, I once again feel compelled to mention that we need
furthermore, as I'm currently hoovering up the scientific lit ritual and social complexity in stateless societies, I once again feel compelled to mention that we need
more studies done on the modernist white psyche through the orientalizing / othering lens of e.g. firth and turnbull, but turned inward on modern bureaucratic systematic civilization itself
when raymond firth or some anthropologist went to examine some stateless people and returned with the observation that their rituals are built to ensure cooperation, discourage free-riding...
their calendar is designed around festivals to make clans and tribes who don’t interact meet to trade and marry
for me it’s like “the modernists and postmodernists created Pixar to tell stories about the key achievement of their civilization, the predominant form of organization that maintains society for them - bureaucratic administration”
“they see it everywhere in their lives, it organizes every facet of their lives, their calendar, their worklives, their children's lives, their birth, their death - so naturally it makes sense that the afterlife and what comes before function the same way, in this fable, Soul”
this is also why I think sci-fi is so important
we need to tell the story of other forms of social organization right there _in the story_. one thing you can take away from soul is that there are bureaucratic authorities managing everything, this is the way it has always been.
we need to tell the story of other forms of social organization right there _in the story_. one thing you can take away from soul is that there are bureaucratic authorities managing everything, this is the way it has always been.
absolutely not
